Tennis umpires must be prepared to act fast and take charge during any interference in a match. But even Mohamed Lahyani could never have expected to find himself in the middle of a bee-zarre incident in Indian Wells last year.
Lahyani was calling a quarter-final match between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev when, after just nine minutes of play, thousands of bees suddenly invaded the main stadium court. The umpire halted the match while tournament bosses called in a beekeeping expert. A year later, the players and officials shared their experiences with the chaotic invasion.
Alcaraz was serving at 1-1 when he realised dozens of bees had started flying around his head. He sprinted away, getting stung in the process. Lahyani stepped in and immediately stopped the action.
Twelve months later, the umpire still remembers the unusual announcement he made before the match was suspended for almost two hours. “Ladies and gentlemen, play is suspended due to a bee invasion,” Lahyani recalled in a new video.
The gold badge tennis umpire wasn’t the only one panicking. ATP supervisor Gerry Armstrong was preparing for the worst.
“I guess at that point, we were kind of hoping that it wasn’t going to escalate. But it did. In the meantime, we in the office here contacted the beekeeper,” Armstrong said.
Enter Lance Davis – the CEO of Killer Bee Live Removal. From commentators to the players themselves, everyone was stunned when Davis arrived without any protective gear and hoovered up the swarm of bees that attached themselves to the spider camera.
Armstrong added: “It was iconic, you couldn’t have got anybody more fitting for the role, I don’t think.”
Once he had safely removed the bees, Davis completed a victory lap around the stands – a moment that stuck out for Lahyani. “With high-fives, pictures. He became the star,” he laughed.
“It was a really fun story. In our job, we never know what can happen. Suddenly, in a split second, something can change. And that’s the beauty of our sport.”
It wasn’t as funny for Alcaraz. “Every second is coming more and more and more. Some moments I had 20, 30, 40 bees around my head. I got stung once in the head so I was running, I was a little bit afraid of the bees,” he confessed.
‘Killer Bee man’ Davis has already returned to Indian Wells this year. He was fittingly invited to complete the coin toss for Alcaraz’s first match against Quentin Halys.
While he has plenty of experience with bees, Davis wasn’t prepared for the attention he would receive for his heroic efforts. “There was a swarm that landed on the spidercam in stadium one, right above the tennis players, and there were about 25,000 bees,” he explained.
“I never wear a bee suit. I’ve been stung 100,000 times easy, if not more. This was quite unique, I feel like a celebrity. Never been in that position but it’s kind of nice, it feels pretty good.”
When play finally resumed an hour and 48 minutes later, Alcaraz earned the win and went on to defend his title in Indian Wells. He’s now looking to complete a hat trick of victories in the Californian desert.